


I Can Always Reset Again: The Run with the Scarf

by OsisHastoxett



Series: ICARA [3]
Category: Undertale, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Depression, Emotional Hurt, Flowey Is A Dick, Flowey-ex-machina, Gen, Mental Instability, Pre-Canon, skelebros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-30 09:48:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8528401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OsisHastoxett/pseuds/OsisHastoxett
Summary: Flowey wants to learn more about Sans.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Contains swearing.

Sans’ nap was painfully interrupted by him falling off the couch in his sleep. “ _gast_ …”

He eyed his surroundings wildly as he slowly drifted back to the present. _floor. home. safe_.

“ok…” he mumbled, collecting himself. Getting back up, he noticed the dead silence around him. He checked the time; Papyrus was supposed to be back hours ago. Sans chuckled, Papyrus must be really caught up on some crazy puzzle idea to have lost track of time this badly.

Having slept right through what was meant to be dinnertime, Sans decided to see what his options were since his own personal chef was clearly preoccupied with something else right now. He drudged into the kitchen and found his options were mostly different densities of boiled pasta. He picked a container at random and grabbed a fork, not bothering to heat up his meal. He sat down and ate it swiftly, thinking of what shenanigans might be holding up Papyrus.

After clearing up he moved back to the living room, sat on the couch and fished out his phone. He dialed Papyrus and waited. His thought was interrupted by a sudden ringing noise from upstairs. It took a moment for Sans to realize he was hearing himself call his brother’s phone. He followed the sound upstairs to Papyrus’ room only to find it empty and as neat as ever. The phone was on the computer desk, Sans’ name blinking on screen. He disconnected the call and stood staring at the phone. _what the hell_ … _?_

Papyrus never left for work without his phone. It wasn’t even charging up, so why would he leave his phone behind? Tiny alarm bells were tingling in the back of his mind as he pondered over the situation. He decided to call Undyne.

“Ngaahhh?” she answered sounding irritated.

“yo undyne, you seen papyrus today?” Sans asked nonchalantly.

“No, I’ve been at the king’s castle all day, Paps and I have a training session set for tomorrow,” she informed.

“k, thanks, i’ll go check the puzzle sites then,” he said before hanging up and refocusing. Puzzles weren’t the best explanation as to why his brother’s phone was here though, seemingly forgotten on the desk. “ _he always checks he has his phone_ …“ The pieces of this particular puzzle didn’t fit and it made the tiny alarm bells in his head slightly louder.

He took a shortcut to Snowdin forest and began combing through the locations he knew Papyrus patrolled or planned to build human-stopping puzzles in. He only found a few other monsters roaming about, and none of them had seen Papyrus recently.

The entire day was spent wandering around the woods, retracing Papyrus’ usual routes, but Sans found absolutely nothing useful. He only stopped walking once Papyrus’ phone started ringing.

“he still ain’t here,” Sans answered his brother’s phone.

There was a confused pause. “What?” Undyne managed once she realized who she was talking to. “Paps is missing? Like, seriously missing?”

“help me out here undyne” Sans asked, “if he’s not in snowdin, where the hell did he go?”

Undyne was clearly thinking it over. “Ok, ok, how about this, if he’s not back 6 hours from now, we’ll start getting more monsters together for a wider search party,” she suggested; this would give her time to alert and gather her guards. Sans agreed, telling her he was going to continue looking.

More wandering around ensued.

                                                                                       ---

Undyne spent the following day running around, instructing every monster who was willing to help on what to do, who they were searching for and designating areas to search through. Everyone was told to alert her if they found anything at all.

Sans roamed every corner of the underground, checking every single place he knew Papyrus had ever visited. As his frustration built from not finding anything, he began considering there might be vital information he was missing, like a piece of the puzzle he wasn’t aware even existed. But what could Papyrus possibly know that he didn’t? It seemed impossible; yet, here he was, all alone, feeling helpless and unsure.

“ _c’mon paps_ , gimme something…” he mumbled under his breath peering under a bridge near MTT resort.

Giving up wasn’t an option, neither was Papyrus having vanished from existence without a trace. Since Papyrus wasn’t dead, he had to be _somewhere_ , so Sans kept on going.

                                                                                       ---

Undyne was leaning on a fence post on Blooky’s snail farm, talking to Alphys on the phone. Napstablook and Shyren were floating next to her, listening carefully as she nodded to her phone. “Uh-huh. Yeah. Ok. Thanks, keep checking the monitors and let me know if you see anything. Yup, ok. Bye.” She hung up the phone and turned back to her present company.

“She’s found nothing either, huh?” Shyren asked shyly. Undyne shook her head sternly. “We keep looking,” she announced determinedly. “Blooky, you can go to the old ruins, right? I don’t know how Papyrus could have gotten past the locked door but it won’t hurt to check anyway,” she instructed. Napstablook nodded and faded out. “Shyren,” Undyne said turning her attention, “comb through all the water areas, and maybe talk to Onion-San?” she suggested. Shyren agreed and headed towards the marsh.

Undyne sighed and collected her thoughts for a moment; she still had a lot of ground to cover, lots of places to check. She glanced at the snails crawling around slowly in the pen behind her. “If you guys see a tall skeleton, you let me know, will ‘ya?” she asked, only half serious. The only answer she got was a soft ‘snail snail’.

                                                                                       ---

Sans had set up the telescope high up on a ledge above Waterfall and was surveying the area through it.

He found nothing out of place though, everything looked calm and the same as it ever had. Sans found the serenity fraudulent, sending chills down his spine. There were some monsters out and about, he spotted Aaron flexing at a group of moldsmalls and Monster Kid trying to place an umbrella into a bin with his mouth. No Papyrus, not even a hint.

 The observing was interrupted by his phone ringing. Sans glanced at the screen and saw Undyne’s name blinking aggressively. “did you find him?” he answered.

“No, but…” Undyne sounded unsure, “we did find _something_. You should come and look at this; we’re next to the snow golf course.”

“i’m not far,” he lied. “i’ll be there in a moment.”

After hanging up the phone he took a shortcut straight to the Dogi stations and walked the rest of the way.

He spotted Undyne standing around, holding a stick with a cloth hanging from the end; a murky, dusty, red cloth. Sans’ hurried footsteps in the snow caused Undyne to turn towards him; she looked worried as they made eye contact.

“A couple of the kids from town found it,” Undyne nodded towards her stick, “I need you to tell me if that’s Papyrus’ scarf.”

Sans eyed the cloth carefully. “sure looks like it,” he confirmed.

“And the dust…” Undyne began with caution.

“…is not paps’. my brother is still alive,” Sans said calmly.

“You sound confident,” Undyne noted, “how can you be so sure?”

“trust me, i would know if he was dead.”

Undyne didn’t get a chance to voice any more of her suspicions as they both saw Alphys waddling up the path. She was carrying a plastic bag and looked as nervous as ever. As she approached she tried to smile at them both but ended up with a weird twisted expression. Alphys held the bag open as Undyne aimed her stick toward it.

“Hey, thanks for coming so quickly. Will you be able to analyze this and tell us what happened?” Undyne asked hopefully.

“I, I ce-certainly will try,” Alphys assured, twitching slightly.

Sans stared at them both suspiciously. “whatever the hell is going on here, it ain’t what it looks like,” he informed them. Undyne and Alphys exchanged uncertain glances then nodded at Sans.

“I’ll head t-to my lab and, umm, find out as mu-much as I can,” Alphys said holding on to the plastic bag tightly.

“I can escort you back safely,” Undyne suggested. She turned towards Sans. “i’m fine,” he said quickly, “i’ll figure this out. i’ll find him.” He gave them a wave goodbye as the two worried monsters headed to town.

Sans knew everything was off about this, but no solid theories came to him as to what could have happened. He settled for walking around some more while continuing to think it through and keeping an eye out for any clues they might have missed. He just needed to stay calm and in control, just keep looking; Papyrus would turn up soon… _right_?

Trusting the fact that his brother was still alive, Sans kept searching.


	2. Chapter 2

                                                                                        _4 days ago…_

Flowey was patiently waiting in his cave, holding what looked like a flashlight; smiling happily at Papyrus as he came in.

“Hey Flowey! Whatcha got there?” Papyrus asked curiously.

“I have a mission,” the flower announced, “and I need the help of a brave soul to do it; you’re brave, _aren’t ya Papyrus_?” he cooed. Papyrus nodded vigorously and struck a heroic pose. “I, the Great Papyrus, am the bravest, most fearless guardsman in the Underground…” he coughed, “…well, maybe after Undyne, of course… you know, once she actually lets me be in the guard…” he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. Flowey grinned deviously. “You’ll do great, Papyrus.”

“So, what’s the mission?” Papyrus asked, curious again. Flowey pointed some vines towards the back of the cave. “You see that boulder over there? Next to it, there’s a crevice leading even deeper into the cave. It’s not very wide, but wide enough for your bony form to slip through. I need you to take this portable light and go see what’s in there,” Flowey explained as he handed the flashlight to Papyrus.

“You can count on me!” Papyrus exclaimed as he strode over to the boulder and circled around it to locate the crevice. “Why can’t you go in?” he asked, turning to look at Flowey.

“That part of the cave is solid rock; I can’t exactly grow there,” Flowey lied. Papyrus nodded and turned back towards the gap in the wall. He tried out the flashlight; the beam was weak, but it would do.

“Oh wait; one more thing!” Flowey called out. “There’s potentially going to be dirt and grime; maybe you should leave your pretty little scarf here so it doesn’t get ruined. And your phone, I wouldn’t want it getting broken. I’ll hold them safe for you,” he chirped. Papyrus smiled gratefully and took off his favorite clothing item and hanged it on a vine sticking out of the ground next to him, handing his phone to Flowey. “Thanks Flowey! You’re a true friend,” Papyrus commented cheerily, unaware.

Papyrus had to hunch down slightly to slip through the opening in the wall. After some careful steps, the space opened up to a small cavity, a cave inside a cave. Papyrus spotted two boxes in the corner. “Hey, there are some boxes in here!” he shouted back towards the entry.

“Oh, really?” Flowey shouted back as he wrapped as many vines around the boulder as he could and began pulling it in front of the rift. “What’s in the boxes then?” he yelled.

Papyrus opened the first box. Peering inside it; he could hear low rumbling noise behind him but ignored it, focusing on the colorful food packets glinting in the dim light. “There’s… like a bunch of food items,” he yelled back.

“Oh yeah? What about the other box?” Flowey’s voice sounded distant now. Papyrus opened the other box; there was more food.  “Huh, I think this is just the same,” he observed.

The rumbling stopped; Papyrus paused to listen for further instructions, but there was nothing but silence now. He turned back and walked to the opening he had slipped through; it was blocked completely. “Flowey…?” he called out nervously. No answer. “FLOWEY! What’s going on? I’m… I’m kinda trapped…”

A wave of uneasiness crawled up his spine as he turned back to look at the boxes in the corner. When the realization hit him that this was a prison cell, his legs went weak and Papyrus dropped to the ground in shock. “ _No… not possible, Flowey’s my friend, he wouldn’t do something like this,_ ” he tried convincing himself. Surely Flowey would come back soon… _but then, why was there food and water in the cave_ …? There was just one explanation for it; this was a trap all along.

Feeling dizzy; confused and betrayed, Papyrus leaned his jawbone on his hands and groaned. _Gullible, gullible, gullible_ … _that’s Papyrus_.

“FLOOOWEEYYY,” he wailed, “Please come back! PLEASE? Don’t leave me here!”

                                                                                       ---

Flowey arrived at the garden in the ruins where he was sure to encounter random monsters.

As predicted, he soon spotted a moldsmall and a pair of froggits frolicking nearby. Not wasting any time, Flowey pushed a bunch of vines out of the earth behind them to grab each one simultaneously so that they had no chance to react to this sudden threat. The moldsmall wriggled intensely in Flowey’s grip as he approached his captive trio, squishing them together and carefully laying out Papyrus’ scarf under them. Then he squeezed his vines tight.

The moldsmall turned to dust almost instantly. One of the froggits struggled and twitched in silent agony, while the other made several terrified squeaks and ribbits before the pressure of the vines crushed them both to fine dust particles. Flowey made sure to shake the dust off gingerly from his leaves, covering every inch of the scarf. 

“ _Let’s see what Smiley Trashbag has to say about this_ ,” he mused to himself.

                                                                                       ---

Sans woke up on the couch panicked and ready to dunk somebody. He glanced around the living room hastily, looking for threats. _it was just a dream_. Trembling slightly and trying to calm himself down; he sat up, trying to let the memory of this nightmare fade away.

_papyrus isn’t here_.

He moaned, rubbing his skull with his hands.

At least this time he’d fallen asleep in an appropriate location instead of on top of random rocks or under a tree somewhere.

He checked both of their phones, but no new information had risen while he was asleep.

Sans dragged himself to the kitchen to see what he could eat really fast as he wanted to get back to searching as soon as possible. As always, there was spaghetti, spaghetti and more spaghetti. Also noodles. He weighted the different containers in his hands, trying to decide what he wanted. Then something occurred to him.

Sans climbed up on the countertop and reached his arm behind the fridge. His hand came in contact with a solid object and he grabbed it and pulled it out into view. “ _yup_. _paps never did find this_ ,” he mused, holding the can of pickled onions. He opened it and ate all of them quickly, the memory of them making him even more sorrowful; he missed Papyrus yelling at him, he missed it _so_ much.

“to all the times i made you mad,” he said, lifting the can, before he chugged all of the sour onion liquid left at the bottom. It tasted bitter and fit his current mood perfectly. Grimacing, Sans vowed that if he ever found out who had caused this and taken Papyrus from him, he would make sure this person was going to have a bad time.

_a very bad time_.

                                                                                       ---

Papyrus was blasting every magic attack he knew at the crevice and the boulder blocking it, but as his magic kept draining, transforming to blasts of bright white bones, he became more and more aware that his attempts were failing miserably. The rock took hardly any damage and he couldn’t use his skills to create enough momentum to budge the boulder even a little. Undyne’s training, as great as it was, never covered ‘what to do if you’re stuck in a cave prison’; Papyrus was not trained to fight a wall of rock.

He cursed and ceased the attacks. The cave fell silent and pitch black; Papyrus just stood in the darkness, trying to come up with a better plan.

That plan turned out to be shouting. He spent several hours glued to the boulder; yelling at the top of his voice for help, for anyone to hear him. But nobody came.

                                                                                       ---

The search went on for days, and Sans hardly ever stayed still. Everyone in Snowdin was pitching in as much as they could; looking for Papyrus. Undyne had her crew combing through Waterfall and Alphys was systematically checking Hotland. No one came up with any leads though.

_“He can’t have just vanished into thin air_ ,” everyone kept telling themselves.


	3. Chapter 3

Papyrus was reorganizing his food supply for the 24th time, obsessing over every item and calculating how he should ration them; it kept his mind busy and his anxiety under moderate control. His voice was gone from all the futile shouting he’d been doing so now all he could do was keep memorizing his inventory to try to keep his focus off the tiny space he was trapped in.

Once he felt confident he knew the contents of the boxes by heart, he turned off his light again and sat in the darkness hugging his knees. “… _Five crab apples, three nice creams, cinnamon bunny, one and a half glam burgers_ …” he kept repeating the list in his mind, starting over as soon as he’d finished. He had already eaten half the nice creams, a glamburger and two bags of popato chisps. The empty bags and wrappers were now neatly folded between the boxes; Papyrus refused to litter, even if he was held prisoner against his will.

The distraction worked for a while, but soon the scary thoughts returned; swarming him like whispers stuck in his skull that he simply couldn’t ignore forever. “ _What if Flowey never comes back? What if I die in this cave? What if I never get see Sans again_?”

Papyrus trembled with worry as he felt his panic raising its ugly head again. Shaking his head, he refused the tears welling up; he didn’t want to cry, to be the loser weeping in a dark hollow all alone. He was supposed to be stronger than this; a Royal Guard wouldn’t be sobbing in silence, they would endure. _Not a Royal Guard yet though_ … in the moment, he questioned whether he would ever get to be anything at all.

Papyrus needed another distraction. He thought about Sans; purposely calling out and filling his brain with memories of laziness, ketchup, constant naptime, the way Sans whole-heartedly laughs at bad puns; the way it feels to pick up his brother in his arms; that blue jacket he always wears and the way it smells like Sans. The memory was powerful and Papyrus wished he could actually smell the jacket. One hug from Sans right now and he might be okay. Papyrus hugged himself awkwardly.

                                                                                       ---

Sans had no idea what to expect when he appeared outside Alphys’ lab and entered the door. All he had to go on was a text that the test results were in. Walking through the corridor into the lab Sans spotted stray papers and empty noodle containers everywhere, but didn’t see anyone around. He figured they must be on the second floor as he stepped on the escalator going up.

He found Alphys and Undyne standing around at Alphys’ work station. They both looked heartbroken.

“O-oh de-dear,” Alphys exclaimed as soon as she saw Sans. She quickly shifted her gaze to Undyne, hoping for her to take the lead. Undyne stepped between them and cleared her throat. “Hey Sans,” she greeted cautiously.

“I’m---” she hesitated, “I’m afraid we have bad news.” She looked at Sans compassionately, he tilted his skull curiously. “The dust on Papyrus’ scarf is in fact monster dust. He’s dead, Sans. I’m so sorry,” she closed her eye and sighed deeply. Alphys was a nervous wreck, twitching visibly; trying her best to be supportive of everyone. Sans simply looked doubtful.

“that… makes even less sense. papyrus isn’t dead, so who’s dust is that then?” he remarked dubiously, “there’s been no reports of anyone else having gone missing, has there?” Sans was tapping the floor with his foot as he mulled it over. Undyne and Alphys silently exchanged alarmed glances, both thinking maybe he has just lost his mind.

“What makes you so sure Paps is still alive?” Undyne questioned in a slightly irritated tone.

“i can’t explain how i know,” Sans admitted, “but i know my brother ain’t dead, so i’m gonna keep looking ‘til i find him.”

“What do you suggest we do? Search everywhere for a third time?” Undyne sounded like she was running out of patience with Sans’ stubbornness. “Sans, _that_ is all we have found,” she extended her arms towards the scarf on the desk. She was absolutely certain he was in denial about the whole thing; it made no sense to her that Sans could have any way of truly knowing if his brother was alive or dead. She still had no explanation to how or why only the scarf was found but she knew the dust, now confirmed to be monster dust, was Papyrus’.

Sans stayed firm. “there’s something more to this,” he said assertively. “but it sounds like i’ll be figuring this one out on my own.”

“No! I-I me-mean, no, we-we’re here for you if you need a-anything,” Alphys cleared up; she didn’t believe him about Papyrus, but she didn’t want him to feel crazy and alone either. Alphys nudged Undyne with her elbow. “Umm, yeah, of course,” Undyne chimed in, “if you find any new clues, the Royal Guard is always here to help you investigate further,” she declared.

It seemed clear to Sans these two were going to believe Alphys’ results over his word, so he decided to not stay and argue further.

He left feeling irritated; it was looking like everyone else had given up hope except him.


	4. Chapter 4

Being in Papyrus’ room was painful. Everything had a memory attached to it and the longer Sans stood there looking around, the more he ached. He walked past the bookcase and ran his hand over the neat line of books, enjoying the cleanliness. Too distracted by Papyrus’ cool skeleton flag, he bumped his hipbone to the table, knocking over an action figure near the edge of the desk.

Sans looked down at all the mighty action figures scattered on the table. All of them had designated spots to stand in when battle scenarios weren’t being played out. Sans grabbed the one he had knocked over and took it over to the race car bed with him. He climbed in and looked at the guy he had grabbed; it was ‘Tactical Stuart’, an army ranger whose super power was his superior ability to be highly tactical.

“he’ll be back though,” Sans assured Stuart, “…eventually.”

He felt the silence in the house weighing on him, taunting him. Everything was missing; the noise, the energy, the life. The uncertainty was crushing. Stuart stared silently at Sans with his frozen look of heroic determination.

Sans tried to think if he’d been here before; had any of this happened to him in another timeline? He couldn’t say, not for sure. It all definitely felt unknown, uncharted, but he wasn’t totally sure why.

“you come here often?” he asked Stuart jokingly, “’cause i sure as hell hope i won’t have to.” He wondered how long he would be stuck here, in this horrid timeline; suddenly everything just seemed so lifeless and empty. Even Papyrus’ room felt lonely so Sans decided he would move in and make it his sanctuary. He would stay here, waiting for Papyrus to come home; even if he had to wait all of eternity.

“i guess i’m looking after you guys ‘til he comes back,” he summed up miserably, hugging Stuart as a single tear rolled down his cheekbone.

                                                                                       ---

A loud knock on the front door woke Sans up and he was hurrying down the stairs before he was even fully back to reality. He hoped to stars someone had found something.

He opened the door hastily, finding Undyne standing outside looking grim. One look and Sans knew there were no good news. He still waved her to enter and she took a few steps forward, shutting the door behind her.

“I hate to inform you that the search has officially been terminated. Asgore wants the guards back to normal rotation because we haven’t found any additional clues to keep the investigation open.” She looked down at her boots in shame.

“ _oh really_?” was the only response Sans could muster up. He felt utterly betrayed by her words.

“He’s gone,” Undyne said solemnly. Despite her impressive armor, she looked smaller than usual. Sans looked livid. “he’s not gone, we just don’t know where he is,” he said, trying to sound patient.

“Sans?” Undyne asked carefully then paused to collect her composure. “Given the circumstances…” she trailed off, not finding the proper wording for what she needed to say.

“ _he. ain’t. fuckin’. dead_.” Sans hissed between his teeth.

“We’ve looked everywhere. We’re running out of options for why he still hasn’t turned up,” Undyne glanced down, shaking her head and feeling her grief tugging at her soul. “If… if I hold a small memorial service for him, will you come?” her voice fading to almost a whisper.

“a _funeral_? you’re _moving on_?” Sans shouted, spreading his arms and trying to step into Undyne’s field of vision; she kept dodging his gaze.

“I need to do it, Sans. I need to honor Papyrus; even if he is somehow alive, somewhere, I feel like I should do it,” she justified. She knew Sans probably wasn’t going to agree with her about this but her own sense of duty towards her friend pushed her towards needing to make some kind of gesture for him. She felt vulnerable and powerless and she hated it; this was now the last thing she could think to do to deal with their loss and maybe find some kind of closure.

“ _fine_. do whatever you want,” Sans said in disapproval, “if you’re done being helpful with the search, then just get the hell out.”

Undyne got the answer she was expecting, there seemed to be no point in staying and continuing this conversation further; Sans was not going to budge. She walked out the door feeling seriously conflicted.

                                                                                       ---

Sans paced around the living room, severely agitated. He hated knowing that everyone else had pretty much given up hope that Papyrus could still be alive. Sans wasn’t anywhere close to giving up; he was going to find his brother, no matter how long he would have to keep searching. He knew Papyrus wasn’t dead, he just knew it.

He paced around some more, trying to list potential places he should go scout. He could feel his soul pounding in his chest, frantically calling out for its other half. There had to be some place they still hadn’t checked, or someone they hadn’t spoken to yet.

The loneliness was crushing him from the inside, and it was terrifying enough to force Sans into action. He couldn’t just sit around the house, hoping; he needed to go fix this and get back the one person he knew he can’t live without. There was darkness deep inside Sans that only Papyrus could shine away, but without Papyrus, the emptiness was growing.

Doing something was better than doing nothing, so Sans bolted out the door and took a shortcut to Hotland. He hadn’t been invited so he had to knock and wait for Alphys to answer the door. It took a strangely long time for her to appear.

She looked stressed out but glad to see him. Sans wanted to keep the small talk to a minimum, so he informed her right away he wanted to see the scarf and her results on it one more time.

They went upstairs where Alphys was storing all the data she had as well as Papyrus’ scarf safely tucked into a zip lock bag; she was quite well aware of its sentimental value for Sans. She had expected him to show up sooner to demand the scarf from her, but then again Sans still didn’t seem to have come to terms with what clearly had happened to his brother.

Watching Sans delicately handling the dirty cloth made Alphys’ soul ache; she wished she could somehow help him understand that Papyrus wasn’t going to be found.

“so there’s no chance the dust is fake, but there’s no way to connect it to any specific monster either,” Sans said, looking over the papers. Alphys wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or more to himself but nodded anyway. “the scarf is paps’ but we didn’t find as much dust as we should have if he had died,” he continued his summary, “and we didn’t find the clothes he was wearing that day either. plus, his phone was in his room, which i can’t figure out…” Sans trailed off into questioning thought, rubbing his chin.

Alphys tried following in Sans’ trail of thought but she got the feeling she had even more unanswered questions than he did. She wondered how much she should push in order to try and break him out of this denial, since it wasn’t exactly her job to fix Sans; she was there purely to present the scientific evidence. After some nervous twitching while Sans browsed through the data, she decided to leave him be; he would face the truth when he was ready to.

Sans scratched the top of his skull. “this doesn’t add up to a comprehensible narrative no matter how i spin it... which means there’s something else we’re missing entirely.” He put the papers down and leaned on the desk, trying to think harder; Alphys stood silently next to him, not daring to comment anything.

The moment was interrupted by a loud noise from downstairs followed by a robotic voice echoing through the lab “ALPHYS DARLING!” startling the doctor. “O-oh dear, oh r-right, I, umm, I’ll b-be right back,” she stuttered, scampering towards the escalator, leaving him alone at the work station.

Sans didn’t care, he was too distracted by his own situation to worry about anything except Papyrus. Nothing in the papers gave him any new ideas of where to look or what could have happened, the data revealing no additional points of interest. The answers he needed stayed hidden, mocking his misery from their hiding place, out of his reach. He felt like a rotten failure for not being able to figure this out. _not good enough of a brother after all_.

A drowning feeling of uselessness washed over him as he choked down a sob, the emptiness inside growing once more, causing Sans to panic. His soul began throbbing fast and a cold sweat coated his bones as his legs buckled from under him and he collapsed on the floor. “ _can’t do this right now, not here_ ,” he thought in his hazy panic as the sound of Mettaton complaining about something wafted through the laboratory. He had to get away, even if it was rude to leave without saying goodbye, Sans decided to ignore the approaching voices and teleported back to Papyrus’ room.

Shakily he fell down on the bed and finally allowed the tears to fall.

He cried for a long time.

                                                                                       ---

Flowey was somewhat impressed of how stubbornly Sans kept searching and searching. His hope for his brother to be found alive seemed curiously strong, even with the scarf Flowey had arranged for them. He wondered where the skeleton’s unfaltering faith was coming from, what made him so sure he should keep looking. All the other monsters were clearly convinced Sans was simply in denial, but Flowey knew better than that; he’d been watching Sans closely and Sans was not in denial, he was confident in what he believed. “ _Somehow he knows the doofus is still alive_ ,” Flowey pondered.

He estimated how many more days he could keep gathering information on Sans before he needed to move on to the last phase: letting Papyrus out. He wondered what reactions he would get out of the skeleton brothers. He figured Papyrus might be a little bit surly over his imprisonment, but surely would be grateful to get to see his pathetic brother again.

Sans was going to be asking a lot of questions, so Flowey needed to make sure Papyrus would only tell him what he wanted, to make sure Sans wasn’t catching on yet; there was still so much to do, so much to try and test. He wasn’t too worried, though, as Papyrus was easy to manipulate and was already at his mercy anyway.

This run was going well; new things were happening.

For once, Flowey actually felt something: _anticipation_.


	5. Chapter 5

Sans didn’t really believe any humans were going to be showing up in the underground anytime soon so he had disregarded his sentry duties completely in favor of searching for Papyrus. Undyne seemed fine with it or the very least understanding enough that she had not scolded him or yelled at him for abandoning his job.

This morning as Sans walked through the woods with Stuart, he found Lesser Dog enthusiastically peeking behind Sans’ sentry station. The dog barked excitedly as Sans approached.

“how ‘ya doin’ buddy?” Sans asked encouragingly; more barking ensued.

“undyne asked you to watch the station? that’s nice of her. good to know you’ve got this covered. _good boy_ ,” Sans praised, causing vigorous tail wagging in the white canine. Sans smiled gently at Lesser Dog and received excited panting as a reply.

The dog noticed Sans was holding something and leaned over the counter to stretch his neck towards Sans, nose pointed curiously at Stuart.

“oh, right, this is tactical stuart,” Sans introduced, holding up the action figure so Lesser Dog could get a thorough sniff. The dog licked Stuart’s lifeless face, looking sadly at Sans.

“you miss him too, huh?” Sans summed up glumly. Lesser Dog whined and poked Stuart with his nose.

“i’ll find him though,” Sans assured, “even if takes me a hundred resets, i’ll find him.”

Lesser Dog tilted his head in confusion. Sans sighed and shook his skull. “nevermind. forget that. you just keep looking out for those pesky humans, eh buddy?” he asked, forcing a half-genuine smile on his face. Lesser Dog barked confidently.

Sans felt fine about leaving the canine in charge of his station since he figured the odds of a human showing up were slim to none anyway. In the meantime, he and his ranger friend still had a lot of ground to cover, so the search went on. He would keep looking for as long as he had to.

                                                                                       ---

Papyrus sat in the darkness hugging his last piece of food; it was half of a dried up cinnamon bun. His mind kept looping over the choices he had made; what he could’ve done differently, what he _should’ve_ done differently.

This was it. The water was gone, not having been rationed well enough (Papyrus blamed himself) and now there was only this one small piece of baked dough left.

He was too tired and hungry to move so he just kept leaning on the uncomfortable wall, waiting. Waiting for sound, or light, movement, _anything_.

Darkness.

Silence.

The food smelled so strongly of cinnamon, he wasn’t sure how he’d managed to hold on to it for this long. “ _You need to eat it before it spoils,_ ” a voice in his mind remarked. Papyrus closed his eye sockets. “ _Fair enough_ ,” he thought and ate the last piece. The tiny portion size did nothing to fix his hunger; it was a mouthful of tease.

Papyrus moaned tiredly. Did Flowey really leave him here to die?

He had no idea which he would lose first, his life, or his mind.

                                                                                       ---

Undyne glanced down at the cardboard box full of bones Papyrus had filled bringing them over as presents over the years and then shifted her gaze to the hole in the ground she had dug. Alphys was standing next to her, squeezing a handkerchief in her hand, her tail coiling and uncoiling. They both looked sad and defeated. Undyne lowered the box into the hole and stood up in front of it. They stood there quiet for a long while; both lost in sadness, pondering the fragile nature of life.

Finally, Undyne reached into her pocket and pulled out incredibly crumpled pieces of paper with incomprehensible scribbles on them and straightened her stance. Alphys gave Undyne her best attempt at an encouraging smile but only managed it for a fraction of a second.

“Papyrus…” Undyne began reading out slowly, “Papyrus was truly one of a kind. Always brave, always kind and always considerate of others. He was genuine, respectful and he never gave up, no matter what. Papyrus had a strong will and more hope and positivity than anyone I’ve ever met. Not in a million years did I think he wouldn’t be part of the Royal Guard one day… I just didn’t think we were running out of time…” Undyne balled her notes in her fist and chucked them at the nearby rocks. “God, Alphys… If I had known, I could’ve… I would so have…” she began shaking her head and Alphys put her claw on Undyne’s shoulder.

“I know,” Alphys said quietly, “this is not how it was supposed to go.”

Undyne wiped tears off her cheek and looked at Alphys in the hopes she would start her speech now. Alphys twitched nervously and nodded at Undyne. “I, umm, I may have n-not known Papyrus t-that well, but… m-maybe I can quote Mary Elizabeth Frye on t-this saddening occasion.” She pulled out the poem on a piece of paper from her pocket and read it slowly as to not stutter, respecting every word.

“ _Do not stand at my grave and weep_

_I am not there; I do not sleep._

_I am a thousand winds that blow,_

_I am the diamond glints on snow,_

_I am the sun on ripened grain,_

_I am the gentle autumn rain._

_When you awaken in the morning's hush,_

_I am the swift uplifting rush,_

_Of quiet birds in circled flight,_

_I am the soft stars that shine at night._

_Do not stand at my grave and cry,_

_I am not there; I did not die._ ”

She rolled up her note and pinched it between her claws, glancing over to Undyne to check if she approved. Undyne looked like she was barely holding herself together. Alphys grabbed her hand and squeezed it in the most reassuring manner she knew.

“This is _bullshit_ ,” Undyne whispered on the brink of tears. Alphys nodded. “I know,” she breathed and kept holding on. Once more they stood together in silence, feeling the loss tugging down on their souls.

Once Undyne regained control of her emotions, she grabbed her shovel and started filling in the hole; burying the box and its mournful content. After the makeshift grave was leveled back, she picked up the sword she had retrieved from the king’s armory. She kneeled in front of the mound, lifted the sword above her head and took a deep breath.

“I, Undyne, Captain of the Royal Guard, hereby pronounce you, Papyrus the skeleton, an honorary member of the Royal Guard. In the name of Asgore,” she brought the blade down and stuck it firmly into the earth. “Welcome to the club, kid,” she added in a whisper as another tear escaped and rolled down her cheek. She stood up and Alphys laid the golden flowers she had picked from the king’s garden down around the blade sticking out of the ground. They both said a soft “rest in peace” before heading inside Undyne’s house.

She made them tea and served cookies she had bought from the Snowdin shop; the bunny lady there was always so kind and she really liked Papyrus…

They sat together for a long time, sipping the tea. The silence was heavy but not uncomfortable.

“I have to get back to work soon,” Undyne said solemnly. Alphys patted her in the back. “I s-suppose I need t-to get going, t-then…  S-science isn’t going t-to do itself,” she stammered and headed towards the door. “I w-will talk to you l-later tonight, okay?” she smiled gently at Undyne at the doorway. “Yes, of course,” Undyne confirmed as she cleared the empty mugs from the table and took them to the sink.

As soon as the door closed behind Alphys, Undyne was already striding toward it, feeling unsatisfied. She flung the door open with force, causing Alphys, just a few steps away, to turn around. Undyne grabbed her in a bear hug and kept holding on, as if for dear life. When she finally released Alphys from her grip, the doctor was blushing. Undyne forced eye contact as she looked deep into the corners of Alphys’ mind.

“Just…” Undyne looked serious, “…just you never leave me like that, okay?”

Alphys nodded furiously. “W-won’t. I. N-never. Not d-dying, o-okay?” she managed to scrape together as an answer. “But, umm, yeah, I need t-to get back to b-building legs. S-so I’ll see y-you soon” she smiled at her warrior fish.

Undyne was too emotionally spent to ask why or what Alphys was building legs for.


	6. Chapter 6

Another exhausting day of searching, Sans practically collapsed in a field of echo flowers. He felt like he had looked everywhere, yet he knew he hadn’t since Papyrus was still out there somewhere. Sans sighed and stared at his hands, feeling useless as the flowers closest to him began sighing in unison back at him.

And that’s when he felt _it_.

“no,” he exclaimed in horror as the flowers chimed in on his sudden pain. _no, no, no, no_ …

But Papyrus was gone; Sans had failed and now it was too late. The emptiness was real. He just _knew_.

Sans broke down and spent an hour crying alone in the marsh, accompanied by the sad weeps of the echoing blue flowers.

                                                                                       ---

It took Sans a solid twenty minutes to slowly dig a doll-sized hole in the earth as he had to pause several times to collect his composure when the grief overwhelmed him. He hugged Stuart tight one last time before carefully placing the ranger at the bottom of the grave. With tears rolling down his cheekbones, he pushed the dirt back in, burying the figure that had represented his hope for these agonizing weeks. Now that hope was gone and Sans was left with nothing but the emptiness.

“ _i love you papyrus_ ,” he managed to whisper, trembling.

                                                                                       ---

Sans spent the following days mostly at Grillby’s getting wasted, waiting for the reset and hating himself.

He kept sleeping in Papyrus’ bed; even when the other patrons had to practically carry him home from the bar, he insisted on being near his brother’s belongings. This was now the best he could do.

Each day passed with the same anxiety filled urgency:

 _reset. reset. reset. reset. reset_.

All he could do was wait and keep running from the void.

The one thing he did not feel was someone watching him.

                                                                                       ---

Flowey peered out patiently at Grillby’s bar from his chosen hiding spot; he knew Sans was in there and that he’d be drunk.

His patience was finally rewarded when the bar door flung open and his intoxicated target stumbled out into the snow yelling something incoherent. Doggo was right behind him and he didn’t look entirely sober either. Flowey knew these two kept getting into dumbass arguments over and over again; he didn’t really care what it was about, he just wanted to see how far it might escalate given Sans’ current mental state.

Doggo was growling at Sans who was busy trying to walk away and failing. Sans kept stumbling over, continuing to mumble something Flowey couldn’t hear. Doggo pounced after Sans and tackled him to the ground. “ _Now you’ve done it_ ,” Flowey thought with a devilish grin; he was willing to bet Doggo wasn’t going to walk away from this fight without some serious medical attention.

The canine yelped in surprise when the magic suddenly incasing him turned his soul blue and jerked him across the road with menacing force. Sans sat up as a giant skull materialized right next to him; both swaying drunkenly. Flowey noted that the blaster looked a bit off, not quite stacking up to its sober versions, but the magic was still clearly visible in both the weapon and its caster.

Doggo, on the other hand, looked simultaneously angry and horrified as he stared down the enormous monster skull pointed right at him; he didn’t even have time to flinch when the blaster opened its jaws and unleashed its HP-draining death ray. The shot hit Doggo dead on and the dog howled in pain as the damage drained his life force at an alarming rate, only stopping at 1. Doggo knew he’d gone and fucked up as he twitched on the snowy ground, struggling to move but failing.

Sans had a self-absorbed smirk on his face; so did Flowey.

The skeleton leaned on his blaster for support and managed to prop himself up to a standing position, eye lights fixed on the canine who was giving everything he had left to attempt crawling away.

“ _you… stupid… bitch_ ,” Sans slurred as the blaster finally disintegrated into spent magic before vanishing, causing him to nearly fall over again as he was leaning on it too heavily; he stumbled but managed to regain his balance.

Everyone’s attention shifted when the bar door opened again and Grillby peered out with a mop to see what had caused such a deafening boom; he was used to rumpus, but nothing like what he’d just heard. He spotted Sans first and eyed him suspiciously for a moment, before noticing Doggo on the ground across the road. The fire monster instantly hurried over to check on and help the barely alive dog monster.

Sans was done caring, he turned and began stumbling towards his house, leaving behind a zigzag trail of uneven footprints.

Flowey chuckled silently; _what a great show_ … if only the bartender hadn’t interrupted them, he was sure Sans might’ve finished off Doggo. He figured if he did this run again in the future, he should trap the barkeep inside and prevent him from interfering a second time.

For now, Flowey was satisfied with what he’d seen; after all, the grand finale was still ahead. He wondered how the next day would play out.

                                                                                       ---

Flowey popped up at his cave; the final phase was upon them. He was eager to find out how much Sans was truly aware of; would he be surprised to see his brother alive or had he really known all along this was a set up? Flowey couldn’t wait to see the reaction, to get a true inside look. Sans couldn’t hide forever; perhaps this would be enough to force him to drop his poker face, even just for a moment so Flowey could see him, really _see_ him. _The true form of Smiley Trashbag_.

He hoisted the boulder aside and peered in to see what kind of mental state Papyrus might be in at this point; grateful, relieved, or perhaps angry? Angry Papyrus had potential to be a barrel of fun; maybe he would even put up a fight? It didn’t really matter, Flowey knew he was about to get something new.

Listening for his skeleton toy, Flowey crept deeper into the cave. He heard no sounds of movement.

The space was completely silent. There were two boxes, a flashlight and a pile of clothes…

…with dust on them. _Aw, shit_.

He quickly checked again from his last save point: he had saved on the previous day, when Papyrus was already perished.

 _Fuck_.

“Really?” Flowey moaned out loud. “You _died_?” He flung the dusty shirt at the rock wall as protest.

 _“Oh great_ ,” he thought, ” _didn’t I put enough food in the boxes_? _Or did this fool really commit suicide_?” He wasn’t sure what the vital mistake had been but the result was beyond disappointing. This run had taken so much time to set up! Now, he’d have to do it all over again, plus steal more food for the monkey in the cage to get his answers, to get that precious knowledge about how this was all supposed to end.

Frustrating; it had all been for mostly nothing. It’s not like he hadn’t seen Sans and Doggo fight before, but now his grand finale was ruined.

“Back to square one,” Flowey mumbled, “thanks Papyrus,” he agonized as he reached out for his controls and begrudgingly hit RESET.

 

The End.


End file.
